After High School Graduation: First Steps of Choosing a College

You're big high school graduation is very near and you haven't decided which college to apply to but don't worry here's a handy list of things you can do to help you decide --

First, start off with a self assessment - be honest and list out who you really are --
What are your strengths, weaknesses, skills and talents?
Define your long term, short term and career goals. List your personality traits and attitudes.

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Now that you know yourself, ask what kind of academic and living environment you want. What do you want out of your college community? Now here are a couple of key words to help you with your search for a suitable college -- circle the words that are important to you.

close to home
commuting distance
in-state
public
private
far away
apart but accessible
new region of country
our region of country
in or near a city
pastoral
near sports environment
small school
medium-sized school
large school
small classes
strong liberal arts
special field of study
familiarity of students/teachers
anonymity
high academic standards
pre-graduate study
financial aid
"big game school"
women's college
men's college
many foreign students
students from many states
religious school
intellectual school
fraternities/sororities
teachers who also research

Once you have all that check out College Confidential and Rugg's Recommendations for college rankings and places you can learn more about the colleges you're considering.

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Give Your Graduation a Boost

Graduation seem easy for some of us but out of every 10 high school students, chances are 4 won't make it to graduation. You might've seen the PSAs on TV about the teen high school students who were given video cameras to have a journal of their trials in high school in preparation for graduation.

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You can follow their stories at Boost Up's website. It's sponsored by the Ad Council and US Army. You can also go through the other sections like the Gallery to see the messages that other people have posted. There's a resource center in the 'Need Help' section so you can get help with your graduation. You can even Boost your friend for graduation – the site is just a wealth of information to help you, your child or your friend get through high school graduation. Remember having a high school diploma will let you earn more as opposed to not having one.

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More High School Graduates Mean Saving $45 Billion A Year

Teachers College one of the largest graduate school of education in the US found in a study that the nation will be saving money by preventing the number of drop outs in high schools. It would be saving $45 billion of the tax payers' money each year! That's $127,000 per high school graduate!

How can we do this? The government can save money by investing in school intervention programs aimed at reducing dropouts. Especially in minority student populations. According to the report, the savings would be achieved via extra tax revenues, reduced costs of public health, crime and justice, and decreased welfare payments. Even a one-fifth reduction would result in an annual $18 billion public savings, according to the study, whose figures do not even include the private benefits of improved economic wellbeing that would accrue to the new graduates themselves. Read the full report here!

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The lesson? Be cool, stay in school! And our government should be doing everything necessary.

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